In Syria, the advance team of UN observers on Monday toured several suburbs of the capital Damascus, mainly the resort town of Zabadani near Lebanese borders, which has emerged as a scene of armed insurgency.

A spokesman for the U.N.'s eight-member advance team in Syria, Mr. Neeraj Singh has said the group will be joined by two additional observers. He said the task that has been assigned to UN observers is to establish liaison between all the parties and make logistic arrangements.

The spokesman said they are in the process of receiving more military observers and they expect them tomorrow and within the next few days. The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously decided to approve the deployment in Syria of up to 300 unarmed UN military observers in order to monitor a fragile ceasefire between Syrian government forces and armed opposition fighters.